German Court Cancels Nazi Camp Guard Trial

Local News
A GERMAN court canceled the third day of hearings in the trial of suspected Nazi death camp guard John Demjanjuk on Wednesday because the 89-year-old was ill, it said.

A GERMAN court canceled the third day of hearings in the trial of suspected Nazi death camp guard John Demjanjuk on Wednesday because the 89-year-old was ill, it said.

Presiding judge Ralph Alt said the former US auto worker, accused of helping to kill 27 900 Jews during the Holocaust, had shown signs of an infection and a slight temperature, prompting prison doctors to advise against sending him to court.The planned cross-examination of witnesses would therefore not take place on Wednesday and the trial would probably resume on December 21, the Munich court said in a statement.On Tuesday, prosecutors accused Demjanjuk of herding thousands of Jews to their deaths in the gas chambers of the Nazi-run Sobibor extermination camp. Demjanjuk, who denies a role in the Holocaust, said nothing in the first two days of hearings in what is likely to be Germany’s last major Nazi-era war crimes trial.He has appeared in court lying on a hospital bed with his eyes closed or staring blankly. Tuesday’s afternoon session was cut short after Demjanjuk made gestures with his hands. A medic attended to him and asked that the hearings be ended.His family has insisted he is too frail to be in court, while some families of the victims have accused Demjanjuk of over-dramatising his condition during the hearings.Demjanjuk was born in Ukraine and fought in the Red Army before being captured by the Nazis and recruited as a camp guard. He emigrated to the United States in 1951.In May, he was extradited from the United States where he had lived in a suburb of Cleveland, Ohio.Demjanjuk has acknowledged being at other camps but not at Sobibor, which was run by 20-30 Nazi SS members and up to 150 former Soviet war prisoners.Prosecutors say they have evidence that proves he was there during 1943 when tens of thousands of Jews were exterminated. –– Reuters.